Finding a Place to Call Home
by emstar1-1
Summary: Link has finally returned from Termina after saving the world from the apocalypse that was nigh. Upon returning into the realm of Hyrule however, things are different. Too different. Something is wrong, just how long was Link away for?


A/N: I just got this idea one day and I was like... daymn man. That sad. So naturally, I decided to write it down!

This piece is inspired by the song 'Lovers Mask' which you can find here: . I highly recommend it as I haven't ever heard a remix of any video game music quite this amazing! So yep, I urge you with all my might!

Also, really important note: in this writing, **Link left when he was 18 to go to Termina**, so just imagine Adult Link saving Termina instead!

Disclaimer: I don't own Legend of Zelda, sadly.

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Link ran, fast and hard through the Forest; he'd had no time to calm Epona in the storm and driving rain. The tall, learning trees leaked rivers of freezing water onto his head and back, the green tunic he wore clinging to his skin like a leech. The emerald forest was illuminated in the flashes of lightning which occasionally shot down from the heavens, threatening to singe anything in its wicked reach.

After leaving Termina, Link felt stirred by the scene of Anju and Kafei meeting at their life's end, kept together by true love. Watching it over and over again, every three days of the purgatory he had been stuck in, made Link feel a yearning for someone he hadn't seen in what felt like a very long time. The true love they possessed was an unmatched power, it distracted the pair from the end of their lives and gave them comfort in a time of desperate need; Anju's faith in Kafei was undoubtedly the strongest force Link had ever seen. A force Link himself had once possessed with his loved one.

These thoughts raced through Link's head as he sped through the forest which he had once known so well. He stopped in his path; this was where the temple where he had spent so many hours with Saria should've been, yet no trace of the mansion survived save a few haphazardly placed, decrepit bricks. Why? What had happened in the three days he had been away?

Running on once more, he charged in the direction of the Kokiri Forest at break neck speed but he was met with the same phenomenon. Nothing. Nothing at all. Not even the stump of the Deku Tree remained. Link cried out in frustration and turned the other way, running as fast as he could push himself. Mud splashed up his legs, the rain drove into his eyes and down his back in a river. The trees thinned themselves out and finally there was no shelter from the rain and nothing to pour it down from the heavens in great, dark, pine coloured funnels.

The expanse of field before him was daunting and it somehow seemed unfamiliar. Link took off once more, ignoring the freezing of him extremities and the numbness that came with it. His tender feet splashed against the puddles, the frozen arms pumped a fast and steady rhythm.

Looking up to the dark sky, he couldn't help but reminisce about Termina, about the imminent death they all were fated to have and the defiance they showed it. Seeing no moon in the sky, Link felt terror; the Terminian moon with its learning grin and malevolent eyes that eternally glared down at the earth still haunted the reaches of his mind, the corners that lacked the slowly receding courage allowed doubt and fear to seep in with their tendrils of malice.

Link neared the grand structure that could only be the castle, its towering peaks familiar yet somewhat foreign. This is not how he'd imagined coming home, wherever that was. No, home was with Zelda. The tall, pointed spire in the centre of a collection of towers became taller and taller, the structure reminded him somewhat of Termina's quadrant like world.

After what felt like hours of running, Link was in Castle Town, but it was different. How could so much have changed in the three days he was away for? How had the moat disappeared and the Castle town be so… different? Ignoring the strange looks he received from the villagers still around at this time of night in the ominous storm, Link ran through the Town in as straighter line as he could manage, trying his hardest to navigate his way through this new land the best that he could manage.

Finally. Finally Link had made it to the castle. Speeding his way through the gates, Link made his way to the entrance hall, only being stopped by guards when he arrived there. The guard asked him something in a foreign tongue, something Link couldn't hope to understand as, the same guard and another tried to restrain him but ultimately failed.

"Let go of me!" Link cried, shaking the guards off himself. He was surprised at his tone of voice, it was angry – a feeling he had never felt this keenly since he was an adult before in the adulthood he had relinquished to gain this new one… But he tried not to think of that time, it would bring back too many stolen and painful memories of friends he never truly made and lives that were never truly born.

The guards stared at him, a puzzled look across both of their faces. Link had garnered a fair amount of attention now as many people crowded around him, all speaking in the foreign language. Perhaps he had stumbled into the wrong country? After all, there were many other countries in the large world.

Another person was coming to see him, but Link could tell they were different, they had a whole entourage of people trailing after them and the people parted for her like the Goddesses would part waves.

"Who are you?" They asked, in his Hylian. Link looked up.

Zelda. It was finally her.

"Zelda." Link replied, breathing a sigh of relief. "What happened here?" He asked, not really taking in her appearance.

"What on Hyrule could you mean? Nothing has happened here. How do you know me well enough to address me by my first name? And why must you speak in the archaic form of Hylian?" She asked.

Link noticed something was wrong. Her voice was cooler, different from the bashful Zelda he knew. Her eyes. They were a different shade of blue, not as crystal like as the doe eyed Zelda he knew. Her face was longer and sharper. Even her hair was different, no longer was it gold or did it curl down her back, it was instead brown and straight, plaited together. She was even shorter than the Zelda he knew, and her clothing was far from the pink shades he had come to love.

"What… What happened?" Link asked, sinking to his knees in defeat. He could feel the Triforce begin to burn on the back of his hand as the magic within him began to bubble under his frozen exterior. He heard people gasp and step back as the burning sensation faded, his insides calming once more and the tumble of turbulent emotions settling down.

"Come." She instructed. Link took her awaiting hand and stood, almost letting himself be dragged along. After being led by this… woman – Link didn't even know her name – for a while, he felt himself he sat down in a seat, he could hear the crackling fire before him. Red, lavish carpets spread under his soaked, brown boots; huge tapestries hung from the grey stone walls. His confusion grew when he saw that he was in fact displayed in one of them, along with the other Sages he never actually came to know.

"Tell me your name." The woman asked, sitting in the chair next to him with a large book resting on her purple clothed lap. Purple – the Zelda he knew disliked the colour purple, but wore it as a duty to her mother, who loved the colour.

"Link." He replied, daring to meet the eyes of this… imposter. The woman sighed and nodded, as though she had been expecting this answer. Of course she would – Link noted with irony – she was 'Zelda'.

"How long have you been away for, Link?" The other Zelda asked, her tone suddenly empathetic and almost… pitying?

"I was away for three days." Link replied sharply, he just wanted to know where he was and where Zelda was.

"No. You have been away for three hundred years." She replied, the pity in her expression now very apt.

He can't have been away for three hundred years! He was still alive. But if he really had, it would made sense. But Zelda… this meant that she was…

"Zelda's dead." Link stated, his voice devoid of emotion.

The other Zelda nodded mutely, opening the book that rested on her lap with delicate, gloved hands. That almost resembled his own. She flipped through the well-read tome with easy, quickly navigating her way through the browning pages.

"Here." She said, showing him two pages. On it, was a depiction of him – from when he killed Gannon. Zelda was behind him, along with all the other Sages and… Navi, the one for whom he'd set out on his three hundred year long quest. She turned the page gently and pressed the book into Link's palms, letting him read what it had to say. Link read it all with ease, the book was still in his Hylian after all. The contents however… They troubled him.

"She really went through all this trouble? For me?" Link asked, disbelievingly. The other Zelda nodded, a small smile growing on her face.

"Yes. My great-great-grandmother truly did love you." She smiled. "She fought with all her might to save your daughter and to remain unmarried; she belived that you would come back, no matter how many times she was told otherwise."

Link could see the resemblance immediately, her lips were as rosy as his Zelda's, her skin tone identical. But her hands… they were his.

"And I loved your great-great-grandmother." Link replied, allowing the ghost of a smile to grace his lips, something that hadn't happened in over three hundred years. But the guilt quickly struck him at the thought of his Zelda waiting day by day for him to return which he never did and his smile slipped away like the rain falling outside.

"I am sure that when I was younger I never aspired to meet my ancestor, even if I had always wondered what did happen to our beloved Hero of Time." Zelda replied, her sense of humour similar to his Zelda's, he noted.

Link's smile faded, his thoughts turned back to the adventure he had left on aged just eighteen.

"I shall tell you. Perhaps you should note it down. I shall correct the errors in your version of my quest too." Link said, his voice reverting to a tone devoid of character. Despite his internal reluctance, someone should know this. Who better than his own descendant?

* * *

Eventually, Link's story was noted down to the last detail; his epic quest of astounding length and nature recorded for all time. Zelda had written it down with meticulous detail, her hand writing neat and beautiful. Link had made her promise to keep his second quest a secret for only the Royal family, so that someday, another Link and Zelda would meet and their tale would not have such a tragic end as his. After directing him to one of the many spare rooms the new Hyrule castle had to offer and returning all the equipment that Link had left in the armory, Zelda had wished him good night and had returned to her bed in a pensive mood after hearing her great-great-grandfather's heart breaking tale.

But Link did not go to sleep. In the dark depths of this never ending night, when the rain had lulled significantly but not stopped, Link snuck out of the castle.

**Z**ooming straight to the Temple of Time, his old home of some sorts, Link wandered in melancholy, his own thoughts all the company he had and all the company he needed. He did feel terrible for leaving his granddaughter all alone after just reuniting with her, but if she as anything like as close to her great-great-grandmother as Link thought she resembled, then she would understand completely.

**E**ntering the Temple of Time, Link noted that this place too was tainted by the ever flowing current of time. Just like his Zelda had said, _Time passes, people move... Like a rivers flow, it never ends._ She was right. She was right about his quest being foolish too, in some ways. Link hadn't found Navi, she was still as lost as always, and he would regret that for as long as he lived. If he'd stayed… the possibilities with Zelda would've been endless. He would've seen his daughter grow up, maybe even see her have grandchildren. He could've prevented Zelda's early death too, they could've lived together in the peace that Link had so desperately sought.

**L**ink didn't know how long he sat in the temple, it could've been days for all he knew; even years at the current rate. Following his map he had 'lifted' he had lifted from the castle, Link made his way back to castle, this time taking the opportunity to call Epona with some grass he has found, he decided to leave the Ocarina with the new Zelda for the many families that would descend from him. Mounting Epona for the last time, Link rode at a slow pace across the wide field which was lit with the gentle colours of dawn, the dew splashing up Epona's legs as she walked. Finally, Link reached his destination. With a long, drawn out goodbye, he finally saw Epona off. The last of his friends had left him, his faithful mare going out into this new, strange world. Link hoped she'd have a happy life, for she had done more than most horses could ever dream to accomplish. Now she was gone, Link missed her company a bit. But he tried to ignore that feeling, surely she would be better alone. Link slunk back to the Kokiri forest, or what remained of it. He'd missed the location before, the forest had shifted over the centuries. Climbing back into his old house, Link began his eternal wait for death to claim him, his regrets from a missed life raw and grating on his every thought. Centuries passed once more and death refused to collect its prize.

**D**efeat. Link hadn't been defeated before. Since he'd come back from Termina four hundred years ago, Link had technically died soon after, yet his regrets gave Link a new form. He was a Stalfoes, the price of wandering into the Lost Woods one last time. The Goddesses had not been kind to him, but maybe that was the price of saving the world from its fate twice. But then, the twilight had come. Link was transformed into a golden wolf – the colour of Zelda's hair Link noted with appreciation – and began to roam into the new Hyrule, one he'd not been in for four hundred years. His body was split into seven sections, he could feel his soul being torn apart and his Triforce essence being ripped away. So the time had come for another Hero to be born? So be it. If the Goddesses will it so. Each section of his body, with a different element of the Sages inside, fought this new hero, so alike in his image, and every time the new hero would best him. Maybe his time for him to move on was nigh.

**A**lone after every other of his incarnations had been bested, Link's seventh section of soul awaited the new Link with eagerness. This last section of his body, this Time section felt the wasting away of time the keenest. The days dragged on and on, when finally the young hero who resembled him so greatly through a trick of the Goddesses, came to him. Link taught the young hero the last of his talents. And finally he could feel the pull of death. With one last look into the Hero's eyes, Link gave him his final message. _A sword wields no strength unless the hand that holds it hath courage. Go forth, my son, seek your battle and avenge thy maiden and take her for your own._

**Zelda**. She smiled at him, her voice beautiful as ever. Her long golden hair flowing; her pink lips curled into a smile; her doe-like sapphire eyes shining. It was good to be home.

"Link."

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A/N: I hope you all liked it! Thank you for reading and leave a review if you enjoyed it please! ^_^


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